Two years ago I wrote that rabbits in the Inverness area were making a comeback and discussed the various reason for this upsurge in numbers. Now the situation has change dramatically with some areas of straths and fields in the same area virtually devoid of them. Last week I drove through a large part of the countryside around Inverness and to the east and encountered no rabbits at all. There were not even the usual signs on the side of the roads and I did not see a single dead rabbit actually on the roads. Admittedly I have had reports of rabbits in a few areas where they are still common but generally they are noted for their absence. Whether this is the result of the two hard winters we have experienced is unclear but this surely could not have helped. Then there is the dreaded disease of myxymatosis although where this strikes these days it does not seem to have the same drastic affect on the rabbit numbers it used to have.
The lack of rabbits may be welcome by farmers as large numbers of rabbits can wreck havoc amongst crops and drastically reduce the crop yields. Foresters do not like rabbits as they will de-bark young and not so young trees and can kill them. The affect of rabbits on gardens is often overlooked but they can be devastating not only to crops such as cabbages but also young trees and shrubs. Large numbers of rabbits in a small garden can reduce the plants almost to ground level. Rabbits must be one of the most successful mammals in the countryside as they have, over very many years, survived despite the most intense campaigns to control their numbers ever mounted in the UK. Shooting, trappings and hunting with dogs such as lurchers and terriers have accounted for huge numbers but still they persisted and in some areas flourished.
The rabbit is one of the success stories of colonisation of the UK, including the Highlands, by a species that was introduced. The general theory is that rabbits were introduced by the Normans although now there is some doubt about this. There is growing support for the belief that rabbits were brought over by the people returning from the crusades through continental Europe. Rabbit remains from the 12th/early 13th centuries would seem to support this. When they first arrived they were kept in large man made warrens to contain them so they could be exploited for food. They were even kept on islands to contain them. The “accidental” introduction into the general countryside was because they, as rabbits will, simply escaped and so the great colonisation of the whole of the UK began.
The other side of the equation is the fact that so much wildlife relies on the rabbits. It is the major source of food for such birds as buzzards and mammals such as the stoat. There is probably a wider range of birds and mammals preying on rabbits than any other prey. Some predators rely on catching live rabbits whilst many others rely on casualties as carrion such as on roadsides. These roadside predators include gulls, red kites, foxes and crows. Interestingly in very sharp contrast to the old days very few people now eat wild rabbits. As a food they have not really caught on since the myxymatosis days that put off so many people. For the sake of wildlife let us hope the current dip in their numbers is temporary although farmers and gardeners no doubt welcome the decline.